"Sunny" also was recorded by many other singers, including Marvin Gaye, Wilson Pickett and Jose Feliciano.
The song's key lines:
"Sunny, yesterday my life was filled with rain.
"The dark days are gone and the bright days are here.
"My sunny one shines so sincere.
"Sunny one so true, I love you."
Mr. Hebb had said in several interviews that he wrote "Sunny" in response to the slaying of his brother outside a Nashville nightclub and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy a few days before.
In 1971, Lou Rawls won a Grammy award for "A Natural Man," written by Mr. Hebb and Sandy Baron.
Mr. Hebb was born to blind parents and raised in Nashville. He joined the Navy in 1955, where he played the trumpet in a jazz band.
In the 1950s he also played and danced with Roy Acuff's country band, the Smoky Mountain Boys, and became one of the first black musicians to perform on the Grand Ole Opry show in Nashville.
As recently as 2007, Mr. Hebb was still writing songs and had his own publishing company and record label, Hebb Cats.